You'll need critical career skills in the age of AI.gettyAI is causing shifts in work that are fast and furious, and you’ll want to ensure you maintain critical skills to protect, maintain and future-proof your career. AI can make you more efficient and effective, but it also poses risks. Your career success will hinge on balancing your use of AI while retaining your unique value, contribution and talents in the process. If you’re using AI at work, you’re in good company with 52% of Americans who say the same. But the more important trend is the steady increase in the use of AI for work, according to Gallup; and also in our lives generally, according to Pew Research.As our use of AI ramps up, there are plenty of memorable terms that warn of the dangers of AI gravity which can drag down our human and career skills. We need to avoid everything from cognitive offloading, cognitive sink and cognitive surrender to cognitive enfeebling or cognitive atrophy. Career Skills for the Future of AI WorkFor success in your career, it will be important that you don’t hand off too much to AI; ensuring that you retain ownership for ideas and work quality as well as your thinking, your relationships and your wellbeing.1. Communication and Writing SkillsCommunication and writing skills are among the most important skills that recruiters are looking for according to NACE, so you’re wise to protect and sustain these.If you use AI for writing and communication, data from Omni Calculator suggests that people can tell. Worse, when people believe a coworker has used AI, they trust the content less, they trust the person less and they lose respect for them. In fact, 45% of people have negative perceptions of someone using AI, and they believe they have ‘lost their personality.’Use AI judiciously in your writing and communication. Even if you’re leveraging it to help you generate ideas or polish your writing, be sure you’re maintaining your own voice, personality and style.2. Creativity SkillsNot surprisingly, you’ll advance your career most effectively when you’re creative and can come up with novel ideas, new solutions and fresh perspectives. According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report, creativity is among the most important career skills in the AI future.Unfortunately, AI can impede creativity. According to a research in Nature, AI reduced the number of creative ideas produced. And research in Science Advances, found that AI reduced diversity in writing. AI also created dependency. When AI was taken away, people were less able to be creative on their own, according to research in Technology in Society.To protect your creativity, ensure you’re seeking out challenges and looking for new ways to do things. Incorporate AI only minimally when you have creative work to do and involve others in your creative processes as well. Working together on brainstorming, solving problems and developing ideas can generate more diverse ideas and enhance motivation. 3. Thinking, Analytical and Performance Skills Among the most in-demand career skills are critical thinking, analytical thinking, problem solving and strong performance, according to both the World Economic Forum report and NACE.But sobering data suggests that if you use AI too much, you degrade your thinking skills. This is because you’re getting answers too easily without having to deeply consider, analyze or process ideas. A study by MIT found that people using AI experienced reduced cognitive engagement and greater dependency with AI. In addition, they had less original thoughts or insights. They also reported reduced recall of the work they’d done and reduced ownership.And fascinatingly, when people worked with AI and chose from among several AI-provided choices, rather than just executing on one choice provided by AI, they performed better, according to a study published in Arxiv. Retaining our involvement and ownership matters to our effectiveness. Be sure you retain ownership for your work. Especially in areas where you are strong or passionate, be sure you involve yourself deeply. Retain your curiosity and ask good questions, commit yourself to great performance, invest energy in your work and stay engaged. Also challenge yourself with getting better at what you do best. These will help protect the competencies in which you can be most valuable and most fulfilled in your career.4. Leadership, Motivation and InitiativeAnother primary set of skills that will be critical to success in the future of work will be initiative, leadership and motivation. These are among the top skills for employability, according to the World Economic Forum report. They are also among the skills that can degrade with too much use of AI, based on research published in the British Journal of Educational Technology.Ensure you’re doing work on your own as well as incorporating AI. Focus on working well with your team, staying engaged and finding ways to solve problems and improve your work processes on a continuous basis. Recruiters say they are finding these kinds of skills increasingly difficult to find, so they will help you differentiate both in finding a job and in distinguishing yourself for growth and promotion.5. Connection SkillsFor a successful career, it is also critical that you can connect, relate and interact effectively. In fact, this is one of the top three skills that are in demand today according the the World Economic Forum Report and NACE.Unfortunately, if you use AI too much, your interactions with coworkers decline. And while it’s great to get information from AI quickly and efficiently, you also need to relate with coworkers. It is through team communication that we obtain more nuanced information to solve problems, as well as social information to build networks. Talking, asking questions and relating are key ways we build connections that in turn provide us with support, friendship and wellbeing and also help us increase our effectiveness.6. Resilience and Coping SkillsFor your career, you’ll also need strong skills in resilience, flexibility and adaptability, according to the World Economic Forum report.It’s easy to become stressed or burned out, and research finds that the more you use AI, the more you may be feeling techno-stress in which you feel overloaded, uncertain, confused or unable to maintain appropriate boundaries between work and life. You can reduce the negative effects of AI by obtaining training and being intentional about learning how to use AI most effectively. According to the research, this was the best way to mitigate techno-stress. You can also raise your resilience by maintaining perspective, spending time in nature, obtaining support from trusted friends or colleagues and building your skills. All of these reinforce your belief in yourself, your capabilities and your ability to learn, grow and adapt. And these will set you apart in your career.Career Success in the World of AIYou can achieve terrific career success in the changing world of AI and work, but you’ll need to be intentional about staying engaged and putting in your own effort, so you avoid losing yourself or your best thinking in the process.